BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- Cam Newton and Davey O'Brien may have more in common than Newton's Davey O'Brien Award as college football's top quarterback in 2010. Newton, the one-hit wonder at Auburn, could see his old school join O'Brien's ex-TCU teams among the worst and quickest falls from grace by a national champion.

As the losses mount, Auburn is challenging for one of the worst records in college football history in the two years after winning a national title.

Auburn has a 9-10 record (.474) in the past year-and-a-half, including 1-5 in 2012. Right now, that would be the third-worst winning percentage over two years by a national champion since the start of the Associated Press poll in 1936.

TCU holds the worst two-year record by a champion, following its 1938 national title with a 6-14 record (.300) in the two years after O'Brien left the Horned Frogs. Auburn will avoid going that low since the worst it can be over two years is 9-16 (.360). Beating Alabama A&M and New Mexico State and losing the rest would leave Auburn at .440 over two years.

Michigan State went 8-12 (.400) in 1967 and '68 after its 1966 national championship. The Spartans had lost four of the top eight picks in the 1967 NFL Draft, including No. 1 selection Bubba Smith and No. 2 Clint Jones.

Other two-year record lows after winning a national title by some organization:

* Georgia Tech, 13-11 (.542) in 1991-92

* Minnesota, 10-8 (.556) in 1942-43

* Michigan State, 9-7 (.563) in 1953-54

* Penn State, 13-10 (.565) in 1987-88

With two more losses, Auburn would become only the eighth national champion in the AP poll era to have a losing record during at least one of the two seasons after its championship. That hasn't happened since Georgia Tech went 5-6 in 1992, two years after its split national title with Colorado.

Other cases of a losing record in at least one of the two seasons after a national title:

* Penn State, 5-6 in 1988

* Michigan State, 3-7 in 1967

* Ohio State, 3-5-1 in 1959

* Michigan State, 3-6 in 1954

* Ohio State, 3-6 in 1943

* TCU, 3-7 in 1940

* TCU, 3-7 in 1939

Meanwhile, Auburn is assured of no winning SEC record for the fourth time in five years. The last time that happened at Auburn was in the 1940s and '50s. The Tigers are 0-4 in the SEC for the first time since they finished 0-6 in 1980, Doug Barfield's last season.